Just as Tottenham Hotspur finally signed a new central defender, Ange Postecoglou’s patched-up team managed to keep a clean sheet to secure a first Premier League win since December 15.
The Spurs fans celebrated by chanting “we are staying up” and thoroughly enjoyed their team scrapping their way to a victory that lifted them to the heady heights of 14th in the table.
Tottenham’s last top-flight clean sheet had come in their last League success against Southampton before Christmas, but this one was achieved in much tougher circumstances.
Brentford had only lost at home in the League twice this season, to Arsenal and Liverpool, and Spurs were missing 10 players, including centre-backs, Cristian Romero, Radu Dragusin and Micky van de Ven, whose minutes need to be managed on his way back from injury.
Kevin Danso’s arrival was announced on Sunday morning, but Postecoglou, while Tottenham waited for the defender’s international clearance, named a team with no recognised centre-backs.
It looked like a recipe for another Spurs disaster and yet Archie Gray, who is naturally a midfielder, and Ben Davies, who is normally a left-back, stood up to the task manfully - as did Djed Spence, a right-back filling in at left-back.
“Since he (Spence) came into the team he has been outstanding,” said Postecoglou. “We missed him the last couple of games, but that’s the beauty of where we’re at at the moment. We’re slowly getting players back, improving us and helping us and I think that’s giving energy to the group. He was great today, [Bryan] Mbuemo is a handful for any full-back and he handled him really well.”
Tottenham’s opener came courtesy of an own-goal from Vitaly Janelt that owed to a mistake from goalkeeper Hakon Valdimarsson, who flapped at Heung-Min Son’s corner on his first Brentford start.
And substitute Pape Sarr’s late goal, that made sure of all three points, came moments after Spence had brilliantly cleared off the line to stop Brentford substitute Fabio Carvalho equalising.
Brentford, normally so good at set-pieces, won corner after corner and crossed the ball into the Tottenham penalty area 37 times. But Postecoglou’s makeshift back-line held firm.
Despite Tottenham’s two-goal winning margin, it was the brave defending of Spence and Co that got Spurs over the line, as Postecoglou waits for more reinforcements that could still include Chelsea’s Axel Disasi and players to return to fitness.
Tottenham have agreed a deal to sign Disasi on loan from Chelsea, but the Frenchman had agreed terms with Aston Villa, who have been unwilling to meet the Blues’ conditions. Talks were continuing into Sunday evening.
Postecoglou confirmed that Tottenham could sign another central defender in addition to Danso and admitted it “doesn’t look good” on Dragusin. Telegraph Sport reported on Saturday that Spurs fear Dragusin could miss the majority of the season with a knee injury.
“Great to get Kevin [Danso] in,” said Postecoglou. “We desperately need a defender and getting him is great, he is a great fit for us. He has had a strong career, but he wants to kick on. He is strong, quick, dynamic and wants to play on the ball. He is determined to kick on and make an impact.
“Look, I think again it’s about seeing where we’re at in terms of the fit of the player, it’s not just about bringing another body in, I’ve said that all along. We’re still a little bit thin defensively I think. I mean he goes under the radar but the job Archie Gray is doing is just ridiculous. 18 years old, he’s never played centre-back before, he’s playing in the Premier League and Europe or midweek, every game.
“With Radu, we will probably have more information tomorrow. It doesn’t look good, but he’s seeing a specialist.”
Brentford went close through Yoane Wissa, who clipped the top of the crossbar, and Carvalho, whose overhead kick was cleared off the line by Spence moments before Spurs went up the other end and Sarr placed the ball through Valdimarsson’s legs.
“We did a lot of things right but we need to ask what we could do more,” said Brentford manager Thomas Frank. “A lot of things didn’t drop for us but we created a lot, produced more than 30 crosses, 20 shots but we didn’t create enough big chances, we had a lot of half-chances.
“It is down to very good defending, maybe the best defending of their box all season, they were very good at defending our transitions, very clear, very good. In a tight game-ish, we needed to win the set-piece and we didn’t.”
